UltimateBet and Absolute Poker Bad Beat Jackpot Soars

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, players at UltimateBet and Absolute Poker are falling “head over heels” as the Bad Beat Jackpot swells to over $500,000.

Online poker players are flocking to both sites in hopes of cashing in on the growing prize pool which could hit $1 million by this weekend. Thanks to a significantly expanded player base, the CEREUS Bad Beat Jackpot has already climbed to over $500,000 since it last struck on February 4th, when Absolute Poker player DOOSA777 pocketed $101,956.97 for the heartache of having his four Jacks cracked.

“With nearly half-a-million-dollars ready to be won, we’re gearing up to make one losing player’s Valentine’s weekend a cashed up occasion,” stated Annie Duke, UltimateBet’s Cardroom Consultant. “We’re sharing the ‘love’ around yet again with our current Bad Beat Jackpot, and at CEREUS, we’re poised to award hundreds of online players with a share of hundreds of thousands of dollars in jackpot money.”

Bad Beat Jackpot games are traditional Texas Hold’em poker with an added jackpot component. $0.50 is collected from qualifying poker hands and placed into a constantly growing pot until someone hits the jackpot.

When an online poker player loses a hand with four 8s or anything better, 65% of the jackpot is divided among Bad Beat Jackpot players with a large portion of the remaining pot held over for the next jackpot. All players seated at a Bad Beat Jackpot table featuring the same limit and game type as where the bad beat occurred also win a piece of the jackpot.

Sky-high Bad Beat Jackpots aren’t uncommon at either online poker site–players at UltimateBet and Absolute Poker have both witnessed a number of mammoth jackpots near the million-dollar mark–but with CEREUS, Texas Hold’em players can look forward to much larger jackpots, more often.

So far in 2009, the total Bad Beat Jackpot winnings handed out at CEREUS is $1, 807,916.03. When the next Bad Beat Jackpot hits, this figure will break the $2 million mark.